USAID IUWASH PLUS supported the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MPWH) to conduct the national workshop on Domestic Wastewater Management Operators to improve their service quality.
The workshop, which themed ‘Excellent Operators Deliver Quality Services’ were held from November 20 to 22, 2019 in Surabaya city.
Present in the event were the Director of Environmental Sanitation Development (PPLP) of the MPWH; the Director of Organization and Regional Civil Service of the MOHA; representatives of BAPPENAS and MPWH, and 84 domestic wastewater operators across Indonesia (20 of them area supported by USAID IUWASH PLUS), KIAT, UNICEF, USDP, and Forkalim.
The Director of PPLP of the MPWH—Prasetyo, in his speech, said that every citizens have rights to domestic wastewater management services as it is stipulated in the Government Regulation No 2, Year 2018 on Minimum Service Standard (MSS).
‘Service quality is a prominent key to domestic wastewater management. The management is not only about infrastructure availability but it also ensures the facility can be optimally used and bring benefits for community, said the Director of PPLP, Prasetyo.
During the talk show session, four domestic wastewater managers supported by USAID IUWASH PLUS, namely UPTD PAL Kota Bogor, UPTD PAL Kota Bekasi, UPTD PAL Kota Malang, and Depok City’s Housing and Settlement Office, shared their innovations and best practices in managing domestic wastewater with the participants.
UPTD PAL Kota Bogor explained desludging service recordings and UPTD PAL Kota Bekasi discussed their experiences in releasing permits for private desludging services. In addition, UPTD PAL Kota Malang presented their cashless desludging service, and Depok city’s housing and settlement office discussed the local government’s commitment to building mechanical septage treatment plant.
During the workshop, the participants also visited the septage treatment plant in Gresik district to learn further about septage treatment plant and desludging service management.
The national workshop resulted in several key points, including (1) the achievement of Minimum Service Standard (MSS) is prioritized; (2) the baseline data on septic tank is a basic requirement for the MSS implementation; (3) commitment from the regents/mayors and heads of the local government working units (OPDs) is necessary to achieve the target and increase level of services; and (4) innovations and institutional capacity improvements are required.
As a follow up, USAID IUWASH PLUS will support the local governments to assess the MSS targets that they have achieved and advocate the regents/mayors to improve the operators’ capacity.
